001e e e good evening call to order the April 22nd board meeting can I get an approval of the agenda I move we amend I move we approve approve the agenda for the a April 22nd board meeting to include the updated Personnel report second Jones yes buers yes Kimble yes kadu Blackwood yes Costello yes Franklin yes Gordon Ross Yes motion passes 70 all right welcome everyone we're going to start with special recognitions and I'm going to ask my board colleagues for this first one um at the uh after after um principal Appleman gets done with her presentation we will go out front so we can greet the um students if that makes sense okay so uh with that principal APPL and Deerfield Elementary showcase you use the podium or the mic wherever you want to
002go got a clicker here if you need to okay okay well good evening um I'm Joanie appelman I'm the principal at Deerfield school and I want to thank you for having us tonight and giving us this opportunity to recognize some of our amazing student leaders this year um this year one of our building goals was to increase student engagement um as measured through our panorama survey so one of the action steps we took was to add more leadership opportunities for our students so one thing we added this year was our student council so in front of you are our student council members for the year we have three teachers here um that help sponsor the um stuco this is Miss fals wave she's one of our sped teachers uh Mrs amlong she's our second third
003grade teacher and Miss Lansbury is one of our second grade teachers so tonight we are here to recognize our student council representatives and to share just a little bit about how they've um shown their leadership skills and uh in supporting our school this year so with that I will go who's next announce kid do you want me to okay all right so um we have 26 members total for the year and I'm going to read off all of their names um when you hear your name friends just put a wave or step forward so we can know who you are we have Tinsley Johnson Ian Gillum is not here right now Jacob aing Camila aruo is not here right now Zoe peek Edie boore Alex cuum Skyler Payne Aurora Lopez is not here Amaya Wilson
004Elena turfler Katie Moy and Isabelle Deets is not here then we have Hazel yoast Charlotte Wagner Andre Slover is not here right now and Harper stamer not here priia go blé James dorsam Lily domish char Lidle is not here jiren I meline Phillips Lillian Ramsey tamasi hafoka and Paige Funk is not here as well so those are our um Dearfield stco members for 2023 2024 how do I get to the next slide okay so the student council reps um in the spring and in the fall um they were all elected by their classmates so from second to fifth grade they decided themselves if they would like to run and so what that looked like is they determined if they were going to give a speech maybe do a poster or some Google slides and their
005class voted so all of these students in front of us um they were demonstrating the three Rs which is respectful responsible and ready to learn they were demonstrating their leadership skills um and their classmates as well as their teacher recommended them so then with parent permission they determined what they were going to do with their responsibilities by us um with their attendance their positive behavior and grades we all have been having such a good time together and I'm going to let Mrs Lansbury describe their responsibilities so once they were elected um they had to agree upon attending stuco meetings twice a month completing two hours of community service attend at least one PTO meeting show leadership by following the three Rs promote school spirit and participate in school and P events um Implement student council
006goals and events plan and promote theme weeks and help plan and Lead monthly schoolwide assemblies so thank you all for letting us recognize these uh student leaders and we will have them just kind of stand here while our board members come up and congratulate them for this year thank you so much [Applause] app than I [Music] all the parents that came to join us tonight and let us get to meet your children and and to have um allowed them to participate in leadership in their school we really appreciate it um so thanks for coming tonight y'all well done we're going to move on to special recognition of the Kennedy Early Childhood Center showcase I oh there okay hello good evening and you can use this quicker if you need to advance to the right okay
007hi I'm Esther cottz and I'm the principal at Kennedy Early Childhood Center and this is Jill Anderson she's a learning coach and supports our parents's teachers group at Kennedy as well thank you for having us to brag a little bit about the things we have going on as many people don't know we serve a number of children out of Kennedy um not all children attend their services at Kennedy but their providers our house there so I get brought just a program snapshot for you we have infant toddler Services of Douglas County which used to be tiny K that serves 205 children at this time parents is teachers and then I broke down the different programs families and children who are enrolled as well as families and children who participate in group connections that's 101 children
008then we have another program that we started this year as part of parents as teachers parents Educators attend high school classes and talk about child development and the role of parents as teachers and Jill's going to talk a little more about that we have our prek Readiness classrooms those include children who are three years old and four years old as well as the benefit program that the district sponsored for classified staff Early Childhood Intervention programs we serve six 67 children in classrooms at Kennedy we serve 54 children in community setting services such as speech and language therapy occupational therapy and ecsc services and then we serve 40 children by appointment at Kennedy meaning that they're not enrolled in a classroom but they receive special education services at Kennedy totaling 161 children we also have our
009peer model program and that's 17 children and I'm guessing that most people would not know that we serve 559 children out of Kennedy at any given time some cute pictures we didn't bring our cuteness with us but we do have pictures we have wonderful children and we have a lot of fun while learning at Kennedy if you've not had an opportunity to come visit and see our site and our classrooms and all of the things that we have there I'd like to invite you to do so and then these are Partnerships that we have at Kennedy we have a strong commitment to Partnerships in the community that wrap around children and their families we have a head start classroom at Kennedy we work closely and have just recently started a partnership with Hartland Community Health
010Center to help families who need either physical health services or mental health servic Services someone from Heartland is dedicated to Kennedy to reach out to those families and help them access support and um that's just this week we had an incident with a A young single mom with four children and struggling through life and the worker was able to get a doctor's appointment that was scheduled two weeks out to happen that day and also to get a follow-up appointment that will happen this week and also access some services for mom so that she can better parent we work with Community children center they use space at Kennedy for a clothing closet parent and parent child classes and resources for families and um the Kennedy students also have access to that Clothing Closet anytime we can
011walk down and access something that a child might need we work with a Douglas County Community Foundation they Prov provided funds this year for parents as teachers to collaborate with baby singing sign and that was a lot of fun Sunflower Bank helps us with our kind of expensive cooking curriculum which is really nice and then Douglas County inter agency coordinating council is the agency that works with us on advisory and bringing our stakeholders together a group that I don't have listed there is the lead Center at KU and this year they provided our specials we don't have specials like an elementary school would have but we had the opportunity to have various groups of graduate students come to play their instruments for us and explain their instruments and we had private um showings and it
012was really great that was great for children it was great for the adults too you want to talk a little bit sure about parents as teachers and what we're doing so one of the goals our parents as teachers did was to get connected more with with our young um students in our district and not as young as ours but with the high schools and so they have gone into every health class at Lawrence High and Free State both in the fall and in the spring and taught one of their classes on brain development and Child Development and that has been really exciting that is 17 classes both semesters and next year our goal is to get there a little bit more and maybe even do a little more in high school so thanks to Denise
013Johnson for allowing that to happen and having us work together with that that's been great that program was part of our initiative to reach out to the youngest families in our community with parents as teachers parents as teachers is a universal program so there's no qualifier for that other than a need to receive the support so we wanted our high school students to know about parents's teachers for their own information or for peers who might need that service and it's really been a good opportunity for everyone thank you thank [Applause] you appreciate you coming tonight we're gonna move on to Free State High Schools showcase principal mcari on her way up quicker well good evening I am Amy mckarney principal at free state before we start with our Avid senior showcase I'd like our National
014Merit finalists to please come up that would be Leonard Steven and J Jun we thought this would be a good time to honor them uh one of them Jacob loose is not able to be here tonight but I wanted to present some certificates to these young men and also have them share with you what they plan to do next year so first off is yayun Yun certificate and if you want to share with them what you plan on doing next year all right hi everyone um this falling fall I'm planning to study computer science at Yale University [Applause] next we have Leonard bass hi I'm Leonard bass and next year I plan to study molecular biology and business at the University of Washington go Huskies and then Stephen danan hi my name is Stephen next
015year I plan to study engineering at Duke on a predra obviously we are very proud of these young men and I wanted them to be able to share with you um the great things that they plan on going into their future and doing so thank you all again for being here the three of you all right on to our uh Avid senior showcase when I signed up for this way back when I thought what a great time to show what our Avid students um kind of what they've learned and what they've been doing the last four years and typically Avid students stay with one teacher in their elective class all four years so um Elaine Hendrickson is here tonight you might say she's graduating with her seniors because this is her last year to do
016Avid since they're graduating so I'm going to turn it over to her and let you visit with let her visit with you about their accomplishments hi um can you go to the next slide or am I in charge of this or sorry okay so here are 12 of our Avid seniors um there are two students not pictured here but I've had these kids since covid like I didn't get to physically be in the building with them their whole first year so we trauma bonded and we made it all the way through and now they're on to do great things so um we're just going to do like a highlight reel of what they've done um at free state and through Avid so combined they've earned 57 college credits they've taken 10 AP classes two students
017tested and um for the Seal of biliteracy one student passed fully one student has to redo the speaking all of them got accepted into college and as of right now they have 18 scholarships offered between the 12 students um that number might grow because our scholarship night is coming up pretty soon so um two of our applicants were tapped and asked by questbridge to apply so if you don't know what quest Brides it pairs uh exceptional students that are from lowincome families and it matches them with like High Caliber schools um and out of 20,000 applicants like 6 6,700 is made it to be finalist and of those 6,000 two of them were from our Avid class yeah and then after that like if you make it to the final round then you pick a
018school you like go through a list and then if the school likes you back they pick you and one of our stud students was picked and she has a full ride into Bowen University in Maine which is a 9% acceptance rate and so yeah it was pretty it's pretty crazy like the stats of that are just wild um so how did Avid how did we turn these kinds of kids out obviously it wasn't just us like they're very driven students there's a kind of kid who applies to be an avid who wants to take an extra class during the day to teach you how to study and take notes and stuff like so you're already that kind of kid but to stay in Avid you have to take an advanced course I'm so sorry and
019we um include foreign language as an advanced course so that's how our kids got to the sealed by literacy um they had recommen letters of recommendations from a person that has known them for four years which is like a massive help to be able to tell personal stories about kids instead of just like here's their list their of their academic resume um they did community service projects they did test prep in class we studied for the acts the whole first semester of their junior year every day uh and then they wrote their essays for the scholarship I actually helped both girls write their questbridge scholarships and I actually wrote both of their letters of recommendations for that and then finally this year if you have a person who's done FASA you've known it's been an
020absolute mess but we got to do all together and at least feel the pain together um here are some of our students so they their senior year they do like a Capstone community service project and normally kids would come up here and tell you about them but all of our students in Avid are at track soccer or at work so that's why I'm here um so if you uh Madison I you won't know but she um made pamphlets for Unified sports which is a new thing that free state is taking on this year so she made like pamphlets to hand out in the fall that way um more people can know about it we had a girl say that she just did not know what our mental health team did or how to contact them
021they didn't even know it was available 24 hours so they saw a need and did an immediate like grab to help other people around and then also you can see the cat sorry um one of my students made like knitted a blanket and gave it to the Humane Society a girl built a little library to put up in her neighborhood and then the Flyers there um are to help with uh foster care awareness in Douglas County so that's just like a little snapshot of what some of the kids have done and then I just thought we'd end with some feel-good quotes from the kids about what they like about it so um things that happen like a theme that is over and over is that it's a family there's a place I can go to
022when I need help when I need guidance these are the people to push me and help me be where I need to be so that's impressive yeah they're a great group they're really really impressive like those the number of college credits is equivalent to a degree almost so yeah congratulations crazy it's so cool and they're just I wish they could be here so you guys could see obviously how cool they are but yeah but they're all at work at they were they're supposed to be they were they're supposed to be maybe we'll come meet them that probably that sounds great yeah yeah um thank you for coming appreciate you we have one more recognition of Jared Chef who is our journalism sponsor works with yearbook and newspaper students um he wanted to highlight some of
023his students tonight as well hello um as you can tell my students are also not able to be here today they are at this point either wrapping up our spring yearbook supplement which is due tomorrow or working on another edition of the newspaper that is coming out this week um uh so far throughout this year they have come out with this will be our seventh edition of the newspaper we just finished the final version of the yearbook last week and they're finalizing that spring supplement supplement to cover any of the spring sports or events that aren't able to get covered in our main book by that deadline um throughout this Academic Year the students have worked hard to produce quality news Publications our yearbook and supplement a variety of online content social media and video
024production work uh they've competed in monthly contests Regional contests and just recently over this past week uh the students that qualified in the regional contests competed in the state contests uh and we will find out the results of that on May 4th uh at a state celebration held by the University of Kansas all of these contests are done through the Kansas Scholastic press Association which is based at KU uh several of these students have received top placements in different categories for journalism such as photography writing design video production and social media reporting uh I wanted to take a moment to specifically recognize over fall and spring just a couple weeks ago I had the opportunity to take students to the national conventions hosted by Jaa and Spa which are both National journalism organizations uh the
025fall conference was in Boston Massachusetts and in the spring convention was in Kansas City we got to take kind of a group of students to and from each day um at both of these conventions students competed in National contests uh and earned recognition at these contests uh the national student media contest is the technical name uh they competed against journalism students from across the nation in these different categories uh and I just wanted to take a moment to recognize some of those placements uh both from that fall convention and from the spring convention so for our we submit best of show for these different conventions for our yearbook newspaper and online content and we received a Ninth Place ranking in our website category um showing an improvement from the fall convention and we're hoping yearbook
026newspaper will get into those Top 10 rankings hopefully next year um I have a few honorable mentions Lily wall in feature writing ember kleene in editorial writing Nick spreer in sports writing Maria Moscone in news writing Phoebe Morris in commentary writing mallerie Thompson in photography portfolio and Avery Smiley in yearbook layout inside pages um with an excellent rating we had Sarah Masterson with newspaper layout Anders Benson with feature photography and Nathan fredman as first year photo and then in the fall convention uh we had Khloe cook with Sports Action photography take one of the superior rankings uh meaning that's the top ranking they can get in a contest I believe only two or three students received a superior ranking at that so um great work by all of our students writers reporters designers photographers um
027they range from sophomores to seniors so it's showcasing not only the amazing student journalists that have been on staff and that will be losing by the end of this year but also the growth that we can see over the next few years um most of these students that are um in these contests are taking over leadership positions in the next year or so so while not every student that competed in a variety of these contests placed um I want to give recogn to all of the student journalists at the Free State journalism program for the work that they do the effort that they put in to make our Publications the best they can be and so I just wanted to come here and give them that recognition today thank you an and I got to
028meet your Stu a couple of your students sorry to interrupt the Clapping because you deserve it that we um an and I got to meet a couple of your students this week and it was delightful so they do a lot of really hard work we really appreciate everything you do to support them so thank you thank you so much [Applause] okay Dr Taylor is here with Billy Mills Middle School your video's pulled up you can hit the space bar play it I don't know what the video is good evening board and Dr Lewis everyone um this is some of our botchy team and we have a botchy team at Billy Mills Middle School we have a lot of great things going on and this group of um children right here are here tonight not because
029of me or Mrs Carson but because of these two fine individuals who work at our school that's sunny pipper our social worker and our school resource officer James Browning and they're gonna introduce these guys and miss sunny actually put together a nice video yeah we can play it broke it you can blame me I added some music thought we needed a little me you're coming around I'm Walking on Sunshine wo I'm Walking on Sunshine wo I'm Walking on Sunshine wo and I'm time to feels good hey all right now and it's time to feel good hey yeah I used to think maybe you love me now I know that it's [Music] true and I don't want to spend my whole life just waiting for you [Music] now I don't want you back for the weekend
030not back for a [Music] [Laughter] [Applause] day hi um so this is our um Billy Mills boty team and they are um a part of Unified sports so I know you heard the words Unified sports um once tonight it's an amazing um program brought to you by Special Olympics um in fact uh Susie Mishka will you raise your hand because honestly none of this would be possible without Susie Susie has done so much to she she does um Unified sports at LHS and she's done so much to to help support and um kind of show us the way of Unified sports um so Unified sports is an inclusion um program that um brings athletes together and so we have athletes that have maybe never played a sport before um but are now getting to participate
031in sports so um I'll bring a couple of the athletes over and if you want to talk about what botch or oh man you're giving me the power yeah of course perfect okay if you want to tell um maybe tell me your either your favorite thing about bachchi this season or what Bachi means to you Unified sports means to you hi I'm Warren and what this means to me is just unimaginable cuz I really love this and I think that anyone who doesn't play it would probably really like it because I sure did and I didn't even know if I wanted to do Sports other than my martial arts [Applause] I lost okay what was your favorite thing this season Connor my dear brother B and we ni my friends and real ni and Noah
032and Ken and Owen and S and are my friends awesome [Applause] thanks it meant so much to me I want to do it again next year what Unified sports means to me is coming together like as a community and making new friends they were able to raise um over $11,100 for Polar Plunge um for for Special Olympics through the polar Pune which was really awesome because we are a small But Mighty team um and we ended up doing third in all of lhs's standings of who raised the most money which was really cool for such a small group so um yeah that's what I want to say about Unified sports thank [Applause] you con congratulations I'm proud of you it's great congratulations congrats congratulations thank you sir great job great job congratulations great job congratulations
033thank you congratulations on all your great work and all the money you raised and and um the friends you made and it was really lovely to get to hear about how the experience um moved you all and got you involved so thank you for coming tonight okay okay okay so we have um with us tonight I'm trying to see the KU well and award presentation Dr Shan hello hello welcome thanks for [Music] waiting hello everyone my name is Carrie shogren excuse me and it's my pleasure to be here today um at the Lawrence Public Schools board meeting to present the University of Kansas Department of special education wher whan leadership for learning award to the Lawrence Public Schools special education leadership team this includes Kevin harell executive director of student support and special education Laura
034Basham director of student services for Early Childhood in K5 Sheila Smith assistant director of special education K5 and Lorie Stam assistant director of special education 6 through 12 in transition this award is presented annually by the KU Department of special education to a school or District leadership team who shows extraordinary dedication to making sustainable changes focused on improving the lives of students with disabilities the award was established in memory of Dick whan a former professor in the department as well as Dean in the school of education and human Sciences at kuu his commitment to advancing research-based solutions to support people with disabilities is what we seek to recognize with this award and I can personally attest to the commitment of this team to making sustainable changes to improve the learning opportunities and outcomes of students
035with disabilities in Lawrence I am a professor in the department of special education and the director of our KU Center on developmental disabilities I'm also here with the chair of the Department of special education Jenny Kur um during my 10 years at KU I've had the pleasure of repeatedly partnering with Kevin and the entire team to advance our shared understandings of the use of evidence-based practices in Lawrence Public Schools we have partnered on developing and implementing grants engaging in professional development identifying developing and testing best practices to improve outcomes for special education teachers and students Kevin Laura Sheila and Lori have consistently demonstrated a strong commitment to advancing outcomes and an openness to leverage Partnerships with KU to do so importantly they have pushed us at KU to advance impactful research and practice and bring
036that into the schools in Lawrence and beyond their openness to partner with KU to identify issues Advance knowledge inform best practices and train future teachers and leaders has had a real impact and consistent with this award helps Advance research-based practices and their adoption in schools both in Lawrence and throughout the country to advance student outcomes Lawrence Public Schools is stronger because of their leadership so we value all that they do for the community and the students teachers and schools in Lawrence and at KU and look forward to continuing to partner with them to advance outcomes for students with disabilities so it's my pleasure to be here tonight and to present Kevin Laura Sheila and Lori with the 2024 whan leadership for learning award and we have a lovely award that we will present [Applause] today
037on behalf of my team I appreciate this I really do I um I wish we could say we did ourselves but honestly it takes everyone um along with our facilitators our buildings being willing to um be involved in research and doing things so I appreciate it and you guys have made it Easy by coming to us and not trying to convince us to do your things but looking at what our needs are so I appreciate it thanks right thank you thank you both thank [Applause] you I think Julie's gonna want to get a photo so yeah thank you very much for coming okay um before we recess to Executive session uh Dr Lewis can you would you uh introduce John Luke so folks can it's probably you're going to do it later but I just
038want to yeah I just do I can do it right now um 2019 had an amazing opportunity to be on a u a talk show called talking with John Luke when he was a liberty remoral Central Middle School student 5 years later he's sitting right here by me as a student board member member of my superintendent advisory Council and so he's here tonight uh just as that and later on he has a a written statement that I am excited for him to read tonight I remember when you did that you are much older voice was not that deep either no it is thank you for coming tonight and we had an opportunity to now I can see it in your face and everything so anyway it's lovely to get to see you tonight again and
039you'll have opportunity to participate we had we had a chance to talk about what that would look like so please interrupt whenever um but the reason I wanted to take a moment to introduce you now is because we're about to to jump into um executive session so there'll be some downtime for you uh so we'll um we get a motion for uh recess to Executive session I move the Board of Education recess to Executive session to protect the public interest in negotiating a fair and Equitable contract to discuss negotiations pursuant to the exception for employer employee negotiations on a coma with Dr Anthony Lewis Cindy Frick Dr Dr Cynthia Johnson Christen Ryan Megan erson Dr Larry ingri and Kevin harell invited to to be presentent and with the board to return to open session at
0407:03 with no action to follow is there second second buyers yes Kimble yes kadu Blackwood yes Costello yes Franklin yes Gordon Ross Yes Jones yes motion passes e e e has returned from executive session with no action to follow so we'll return to open session and we'll move on to the report of the superintendent of schools thank you Bo president once again good evening board members members of the public um I know two things I think Kelly's going to talk about uh the Margo award and I'll ask gr to mention more uh during his remarks about the uh pinewood derby over at um fno again thank you so much John Luke Esperance for being here as a part of the student um board member oh that we already had that we had that there we
041go again I want to send my congratulations to our special education leadership team on their um winning the KU whan award so congratulations to our sped team do have some updates uh this past Friday the United States Department of Education released revisions to Title 9 uh that become effective August 1st of this year the rules for the first time codify protections for lgbtq plus students employees and parents against discrimination including harassment based on sexual orientation or gender identity the new regulations do not change Lawrence Public Schools commitment to an educational environment free of discrimination free from discrimination and harassment nor do they change our commitment to offering a fair and supportive process for investigating allegations of misconduct the new title n rules do not impact the interplay between gender identity and sports uh I will
042say there are separate rules governing uh title NES process for athletic participations that have not yet been released in addition to new rule do not impact school facilities as you know all of our school buildings have gender inclusive uh restrooms and changing spaces that support student privacy we'll say the most significant change um as it relates to the new um regulations um give school districts more flexibility regarding how to address allegations of sex-based misconduct such as uh returning to a single uniform grievance process to address all forms of discrimination and harassment obviously ly we will share more information as the administration and board policy committee reviews any um necessary changes to our policies and procedures tonight the board will consider as part of the Personnel report the hiring of uh Mike Lewis a longtime Southwest
043Middle School teacher and Coach as West Middle School's assistant principal and athletic director uh beginning July 1 um also during my um speech uh when the board approved me to be the uh superintendent I shared uh some highlights of a teacher um that I had been stalking on Facebook um uh and there was Mr Daly and so just as I was eagerly excited to go in his classroom when I first arrived I'm even more eagerly excited to go into woodlon as he uh becomes the principal of um woodlon so again the board will also consider as part of its Personnel report tonight the hiring of Brandon Daly who's here with us tonight as won's he's currently won's instructional coach academic interventionist um we are proposing that he become the principal beginning July 1 uh certainly
044both of these gentlemen are highly qualified and effective Educators who will serve these students well as instructional leaders obviously this is pending board approv it uh approval so congratulations to them to the woodlon and West Middle School communities again I also acknowledge um Brandon is here with us Mr D would you mind standing and waving waving your hand congratulations awesome the Lawrence schools Foundation awarded the amazing Noah Baker uh facilities and operations electrical technician uh it's spring Ace award or acknowledging classified employees Awards and $500 uh Noah does a great job and has an infectious kind personality and positive attitude certainly appreciate board president Jones board member Gordon Ross for also uh being there to help the foundation present this award and celebrate um Noah a huge shout out to um Denise Johnson and the
045curriculum team uh the curriculum instruction assessment team celebrated the first cohort of 70 Educators to complete letters training with an Italian dinner last week many of you know p uh pelene Flores who um in addition to serving as our ex experimental learning specialist and for to school coordinator is a farmer and Chef so he prepared the meal and it was delicious uh the letters training has been an impactful experience for our staff certainly appreciate the teachers uh that are in this group uh for their dedication to more than 288 hours of literacy training hugely exciting uh last week I did share with you um the work that has been done around our um solar uh panels over at Prairie Park in addition to that work our uh facilities and operation team has been busy over
046spring break you also find tonight uh on tonight's consent agenda we are requesting the board to take action on approving much needed work covering a replacement and repairs of roof roofs of eight locations uh that total project cost is $1.7 million we know we've been you've been hearing and getting emails from Lawrence High School Lawrence High School will receive over $700,000 worth of much needed work so here shows um the woodlon elementary Chiller replacement that took place over spring break uh we also have uh Sunset Elementary School their rooftop unit a replacement was done over spring break in addition West Middle schoool's installation of the acoustic sound reducing panels was done over spring break um and this is just a small portion of the work that was done in Lawrence High School softball batting cag's
047uh replacement so a huge shout out to our facility operations uh Team while some may have been vacationing they were um this was their spring break trip uh around the district here are a couple of calendar reminders uh for school families um there is no school I'm sorry that's not that was last week our Lawrence Public Schools Art Show April 26th there is school we still have school uh April 26th through May 10th is the uh Lawrence Public Schools art show over at the law Lawrence art center and then won's 100th anniversary uh celebration will take place on May 18th from 4: to 7: and then finally my two ask again one is um on behalf of Junior Achievement of of Kansas if you're interested in serving as a volunteer uh teacher please reach out
048to myself or Julie Bo or Debbie um Debbie Harman over at um Junior Achievement at Debbie atkansas ja.org and then also our partnership with Big Brothers Big Sisters um we're seeking uh bigs to support our our Littles so that's all I have thank you Dr l oh one more thing I did say um John Luke Esperance has a statement that he would like to to read can read at this time you can pull that mic down all right good evening it's nice it's nice to meet y'all my name is Jean Lukas Bron um I have a speech that I wrote and I would like to share it um on Wednesday March 31st 2021 I just returned home from my second day of hybrid learning I was part of the second wave of students going back
049to in-person learning uh I relaxed on my phone for a while and then began doing schoolwork at the kitchen table as I worked I heard my parents in the background with their usual banter amongst each other the normaly of it all however I then heard a phone call an ominous silence accompanied on that day I found out that my older brother Babu tragically passed away in a train accident he was only 23 years old it's been 3 years without him I say this to emphasize a point we are not Invincible after babu's death I found that I must live my life with urgency I have realized that we take life for granted I've realized how much we get in our own way constantly we tell ourselves excuses on why we can't do something but I'm
050here tonight to ask why can't we I'm here to stress that we can do whatever we desire we are more than capable we are more than capable achieving our goals but we must understand that hard work is required to get there I call out to all of us tonight to encourage one another I dare us to follow up and hold each other accountable I ask that we try our best at being understanding to be empathetic to not be afraid of having those conversations with one another in our community of Lawrence we have witnessed horrid and violent Acts things that have deeply saddened me but something that I cannot get past is how senseless it all is we must acknowledge that many things can be solved by Simply Having a discussion as a young black man
051I will always stand by my own black community most of us share that sentiment with our own communities however at the end of the day we all live here together so please I ask that we tear down these barriers because I love y'all I love our community I know you do too we care for this community in our own ways from the experiences that from the experiences that I've gone through I've developed this obligation to share my story and to give people advice my brother's death is what woke me up I'm trying to do the same and wake everyone up because I care my life wouldn't be my life without all of you you give me experiences that make life interesting and for that I truly appreciate it as I close I sincerely ask that
052we continue driving each other I ask that you really push yourself please remember that we are a community and it's important that we start these conversations do not be afraid to have those conversations and do not do a disservice to our students and to our faculty of deciding to sweep things under the rug I give you the determination to begin making that change to start on that project that you've been sitting on for so long I promise that with your own work work ethic you will get to where you want to go wake up and go chase it because the world is yours I mean it thank you and have a good night [Applause] so much we can learn from our children listen to them and as you can see this is why I am
053um excited that John Luke um reached out through his administration over at Lawrence High because he had a word and he wanted to share it and he wanted a venue and I appreciate the board um for allowing him to um send his message tonight and I I appreciate all of you for listening um it just comes from a place of pure care I really do care about our community I care about every single one of all of y'all you know what I mean especially my classmates and my students back at LHS but really all students um I've just noticed that it feels that Lawrence as a community sometimes lacks in accountability accountability in our adults accountability in our parents and especially accountability amongst ourselves as in students um I just really want everyone to know
054that I would highly suggest that we do not become complacent that we do not get comfortable I want us to push our kids to do what they want to do what they actually want to do yes they can go to KU that's more than fine KU is a wonderful establishment but what do our kids actually want to do and how are we going to push them and hold them accountable to do that to go to where they want to go where they actually want to to go and to not deprive them of the motivation that they need of saying you can do it but what are you going to do to find those opportunities um and I just really don't want to see more kids die um there is a lack of conversation being had
055with the deaths that we've experienced I don't think that's fair to our community and more specifically like people a community from the East side and people who are you know that look like me that's a disservice it is so what are we going to do to actually evoke some change no matter what you do all it takes is one little thing but no more being selfish you must care for your community and where the future thank [Applause] you thank you um yeah like sometimes I don't you know you sometimes the world opens up in a way you're not really expecting so I didn't know that was going to happen tonight um I really appreciate you I'm I'm I'm really grateful for you thank you um so we'll move on to the report of the president
056of the board and and Dr Lewis mentioned that I have someone I would like to honor uh so Carissa Welsh is a social worker at Lawrence High School and in my capacity um at the University of Kansas I had the opportunity this last week to honor her as a Margo recipient for excellence and practicum instruction we have about 365 or so practicum instructors across the country and um Chrissa service to Social Work education and to mentoring students so that they can go on to do the good work that she does um was exceptional there was an award committee it wasn't just uh the Lawrence board president picking a Lawrence High um uh representative so I was really proud to be a small part of that Kylie Luckett was there with me um Mark puit is
057here tonight was there with me uh so just this is my second opportunity to to congratulate Carissa and we have an opportunity to um recognize her at graduation at the lead Center coming up in May and really to all the social workers that were in that room and the mental health um workers that were in the room um my sincere gratitude for all the work you do uh in our district okay so um I heard there was also our we we'll get there to the um we're going to move on to public comment let me pull up all right uh Mr Hyde would you like to join us hello uh I'm going to try to speak as quickly as I can please bear with me there's not anybody else here delivering public comment only a
058few other people um y well uh I can't really use it the mic all the time but I'll keep it ready y okay so my name is Eric kid um I was born October 14th 1985 here in Lawrence Kansas uh I went to Johnny Apple Seed preschool which is on I don't know if it's still there it's on 15th Street I went to Broken Arrow uh South and Lawrence junor High I graduated 2004 um I worked in the schools uh as a parah um emotionally disturbed kids is who I work with and um I didn't really agree with it so I quit um but that's another story I came here tonight to uh but first let me just say that um there's something very important to consider with what John Luke said um the chime
059in Martin Luther King Jr said to not judge people by the color of their skin but by the content of their character I have a dream that's what he said at Washington Monument so I want to say that because I grew up here in Lawrence and I know what I call them Hypocrites uh say they say they love uh people of different races but yet they're Hypocrites I just want to say that so I don't know if that makes any sense but I think it does anyway just focus on people's character and their heart be loving and kind to people and that's really all need to do what John Luke said about Unity that's I've been all about that too I think a lot of people are about that in this community right now I
060think Lawrence Kansas in this school district is the most important place in the whole entire world right now I truly believe that so anyway we need to be exemplary of how Unity can happen in this community doesn't matter our differences we just need to unite that's all we need to do so anyway um when I was in second grade at uh Broken Arrow Elementary was March 16th 1994 I don't know if it was spring break or whatever um I was riding I was on my bicycle let me put this down I was on my bicycle and um crossing the street I was wearing a helmet and I got hit by a car on West 27th Street and I don't know if that even picking up in the mic I'm sorry good good um if you
061can see here there's a little indentation right here uh my brother is in Lawrence bike club so that's why LBC is on the helmet um anyway so this helmet saved my life the helmet program in Lawrence started because of me because I survived my accident I was in a 16-day coma and I actually woke up on April 1st 1994 and coinci acally I was in special ed after I recovered for 3 weeks I was released from children sorry to interrupt we have a 3 minute limit and you're over by a minut I'm not done I'm sorry let me continue um and I would like to show this blanket to you was made in the hospital always put upside down but anyway um I want to respect the time limit um okay but I just want
062to say that um oh what I wanted to say for my public comment this is very important is that I believe you need to reopen Broken Arrow Elementary okay and um I don't care how you do it you need to reopen it somehow for elementary school kids so they can go there it's it's near high school they need to have a school near high school to go to elementary school and I'm done now thank you I appreciate it okay um uh Topher you're up I'm going to go ahead and give you an additional minute as well hey guys haven't seen you since the Beyond The Boardroom um John L thanks man um you're right we don't have enough of the difficult conversations in this community that we we have we're too afraid and that's why
063people are diverting and sweeping things under the rug instead of having the faith in each other and in our community to have these conversations um that is the thing that we need we we don't need toxic positivity telling us to focus on the good there are problems that are impacting the lives of children and we need to focus on that I'm at that Beyond The Boardroom I brought up that recently you were given a report on Behavior reporting that showed that behavior reporting is down um I asked the question if it was going to account for how often there is someone teaching these classes that is incapable of entering behaviors into Power School um I was then told that the question wasn't going to be asked at this board meeting because it was known they
064would not give the answer um there are places where people will listen to you places like this where you can come and get information um sadly sometimes times it's worse than you know so I got uh open records request for Subs um I can't track down and see what the coverage is for the kids that were at pinkyy and Broken Arrow but I can tell you that last year in the first semester there were 35 unfilled sub needs at Broken Arrow and Pinkney Elementary combined that meant that 12.3% of the classes that needed Subs did not get covered this year predominantly those children attend Hillcrest where in the first semester there were 74 unmet sub needs 31% of the time at Hillcrest that a class needed a sub they did not get it none of
065those behaviors in those classes got reported that's the report you guys were given couched in terms of reduced behaviors it was reduced reporting in behaviors just because bad stories go away it doesn't mean bad instances don't go away in that same Beyond The Boardroom I I told you guys about how District employees were being told that they like it was reported to you guys that they had access to a restorative justice drive and they didn't know where it was and you decided to lecture me instead of providing a functional answer for like hey we could send out an email to everybody and be like guys here's the thing that you're supposed to use we really think this is important let's do it like would have taken less time than lecturing me but instead it took
066a whole day of a teacher and a principal emailing back and forth the principal didn't know principal did not know but the district's lead for student and parent support facilitator that's who had the restorative justice Drive resource for principls and teachers right we need to have you guys ask these questions out loud we're making decisions thanks again young man okay all right we'll move on to board commentary uh we'll start um at the end of the table and move this way gr yeah um just a couple things um last week um was able to let's let see um so uh Dr Lewis talked about it a little bit on April 12th um where when Noah got his award uh was able to facilitate uh able to run a pinewood derby at the fno lunch um
067was kind of a a fun event I had mentioned to Dr inel brick um about a month ago um that I would be willing to do that for his staff I think he thought I was crazy and uh and he said well I'll mention to him and and I'll see what they say and then I think he texted me the next day and said I didn't think they would be this excited but they're very excited so um and then earlier in April he told me um that the day that the p with Derby kits arrived um uh they saw a dramatic spike in YouTube usage at the building um and then my first ever interaction with Noah um was uh the Wednesday before that meeting I left the facilities and operations headquarters went to quick
068trip to get some gas and this random District employee walked up to me and said are you ready to lose on Friday was the first words out of his out of his mouth and turned that turned out to be Noah um so I will say uh the the results of that race if you take out the ringer who finished first who happens to be really reled to me um my son Alex uh the fno front office came in first um I believe one of those wonderful uh ladies had at least three sons who went through Scouts and I think they went and dusted off an old car and brought it back uh Tom LZ came in second and then Mike Williams came in third so those those were the top three um and then on
069the 15th had uh a negotiations meeting as well and then lastly in on the ENT agenda tonight there's some um property work over at cordley the the city is doing some road work there on Vermont Street and so in coordination with that um and some easement work uh we're going to do some work in the parking stalls along Vermont the the city's doing sidewalk work we're going to do some um sidewalk and and and Parking Salt work along Vermont Street we're um purchasing some musical instruments and accessories some three snow plows and then Dr Lewis also mentioned the roof repair across the six buildings that's all I have um I just have a few things uh one uh John Luke thank you so much for that uh my condolences to your you and your family
070uh June 2021 was a hard year and a month for me as well I lost two brothers that month so um I I can understand it also was a wakeup call for me to get up and do something cuz life is too short um this this past week um I did attend the uh CET Hill Coffee um it was definitely good um they were a well-run machine to be Elementary children and I kind of know where to go to hire some kids at when I gr to open up a business they took orders they called out orders and um they were a force to be reckoned with so we might want to look out for the working group um I have a busy week this week um I got a My Free State High School
071um site council meeting is Wednesday my only day off this week and so I will be busy um and also outside of the board I was selected for the Douglas County Sheriff Citizen Academy so um that is uh interesting you know we did um uh investigations last Thursday and did fingerprinting and stuff like that and so they offered me a position you know because I was kind of real light and delicate on fingerprinting I'm not working for the sheriff's department I can't do that but um other than that um I had had a very good good week last week congratulations on that I did that last year and it was an amazing experience so I think you'll enjoy it um I was also wanted to thank you John Luke I think those were some really
072inspirational words and I definitely took them to heart so thank you for sharing that um I was unable to attend the ace award presentation April 12th but wanted to congratulate Noah Baker on his well-deserved win um I attended a policy committee meeting on the 15th uh the 16th I went to the steam school information session at Liberty Memorial Central and was able to tour the building with my family um April 18th I volunteered for lunch duty at Sunflower Elementary I wanted to give a shout out to Mr Ramon who works in the lunchroom every day ensuring the students are able to socialize and eat while also working another job full-time the transitions between grades and classes entering the lunchroom is very smooth the kids understand the expectations and it's a Well oiled machine I know
073that the staff at sunflower is super appreciative of his work uh and the students really like him I've been impressed by his care each time that I have volunteered there um so please give Mr Ramone and other lunchroom supervisors love when you see them they definitely provide an important service in our schools and and don't necessarily get a lot of recognition for it on the 19th I attended a meeting with Kelly and the LHS budget editors Jack Natasha Maya and Morgan along with uh Barb tholan and Dr RS and others to discuss suggested changes to the student media policy the students had a wellth thought out presentation with lots of supporting information and I appreciated their passion and dedication and have a lot of uh reading to do uh I also attended with um Yolanda
074the eagle Bean at sunflower uh that day as well Mrs Brown's first grade classes coffee shop they offered coffee Italian sodas and baked goods each student had a specific role within the coffee shop from cashier to manager to greeter my cashier Dax Campbell was super friendly and smartly told me that my leftover Eagle bucks were to go into the tip jar it's easy to see why Mrs Brown or Miss Brown won the Kansas Master teacher of the year award earlier this year um finally I wanted to talk about um policy AG is on the consent agenda for its second read um I know there's been concern over this policy I am going to vote to approve it and I wanted to give a little background why first the first parts of the policy are verbatim
075from the state statute the last portion concerning the State Board administrative review is not verbatim uh but what it does do is set out the process for challenges and what the State Board of Education must do we cannot order the state to do anything in our policy so that is why those changes were made we're using the wording suggested by KB and we will have a link in the policy to the state statute as well so those so that that process can easily be seen um and just for those who are unaware of the process is as follows um if a district if District members community members are unhappy with the resolution to close the school they have 45 days after the resolution is passed to send a request for administrative review the request must
076be signed by 5% of registered voters um the State Board of Education then has 45 days to review the request and issue an advisory determination to the district stating um whether their resolution is reasonable under the totality of circumstances or they could recommend changes to the resolution or for it to be rescinded altogether then the District board must reconsider the resolution in uh sorry which includes holding a public hearing and may approve modify or resend the resolution upon the conclusion of such hearing no initial resolution passed to passed to close a school can become effective until after the initial 45-day period post pass passage to allow for those um requests for administrative review um and I just wanted to uh put that out there so that if people had concerns they were a little bit
077more aware of what the process is um that's all I have hi um this is Carol I would just like to acknowledge that today is Earth Day a Monday April 22nd and um again I'll reiterate we always we have a word for that it's um every day for us but our word for it is segma that means Mother Earth so I would just want to acknowledge her today let's see um on Saturday April 13th I had the great and Grand opportunity to volunteer at the KU First Nation Student Association poow where I um I was I volunteered at the Grand entry and that was just so you know was powerful for me was it something that was really affirming for me this something I needed to um clear my head get some balance as Jean
078Luke said I I needed some just something to just re-energize so that was good for me to be in there in that space and see it's I attended the schwagler site Council on April 15th where most of the discussions included improving the Courtyard at SW Elementary and if you get a chance or an opportunity I encourage my fellow board members to check that out because um it's really quite bare it's really institutional so we could really they could really use our help there beautif beautifying the playground or the courtyard let's see and on April 16th I attended the Billy Mills Middle School site Council where it was just Dr Taylor and I there for the meeting there were no parents and it was well advertised and it was on the website so I'm not sure
079what's going on I'm hoping everybody was at Liberty Memorial Central Middle School to look at the steam school I'm hoping everybody was and let's see on April 17 I met um in a hybrid fashion with the indigenous usd497 indigenous curriculum committee where discussions of Outreach in coordination with the members from Governor Kelly's Kansas advisory Council and Indigenous education um to discuss on how U methods or means to collaborate and developing curriculum to that end I would like to thank those who are developing curriculum to teach Native American history culture and language and we as indigenous peoples have always respected and celebrated our interconnectedness in fact we have a word for that too it's a gway DN where everything is connected yet our institutions still have tremendous work to do in recognizing and acknowledging our history
080contributions and the day that we as Native Americans gained US citizenship through this SN act signed on June 2nd 1924 uh last week I attended the two-day Conference held at K the at KU with uh along with Mama Jay and Dr Johnson to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Brown versus Board of Education Landmark ruling along with my dad and Indigenous curriculum committee member Steve cadu uh we listen to expert panelists who relayed the implications and goals for moving forward to support and enforce the brown decision and I am honored and proud to serve on this board who continually Works to uphold enforce and support the brand decision through a deep appreciation for inclusive curricula capable of acknowledging all cultures histories and lived experiences and on the on Friday April 19th I will uh be
081I've asked to be a judge for the Miss hasell and hll brave competition this Friday at the hll Indian nations University Auditorium and the next Billy Mills Middle School State council meeting will be May 7th and I would like to give a reminder to our Native American student services um members and parents and students that Mort boards are being distributed at the Native American student services building and um you can pick those up to decorate in time for graduation in support of House Bill 2498 which um prohibits government institutions from prohibiting our students to wear their regelia and Feathers to graduations so thank you and that's all I have I've also attended the policy committee meeting um on Monday the 15th um we are working through a number of issues that we will have uh
082updates on for the board uh probably at our May second May meeting um I also was happy to along with an and Yolanda attend Miss Brown's uh Eagle bean coffee shop uh those first graders were fantastic and so much that was so much fun so thank you for that invitation um John Luke I wanted to thank you for your powerful words um I really appreciate what you had to say um so thank you um a couple legislative updates for my fellow board members um uh house sub for Senate Bill 387 so that's the K12 budget Bill uh we still don't have the actual text of the agreement that was reached on that but we have um we expect that it will be released probably Thursday or Friday this week um the legislature goes back for
083Budget committee meetings and maybe some conference committee meetings this Thursday uh they will be working on the floor is my understanding on Friday and probably Monday and Tuesday so that's when we're likely to see votes on the K12 budget so I will um be obviously monitoring that and we'll provide an update to board members um at our next meeting about what happens um the governor has vetoed a number of bills since uh the first adjournment at the um beginning of the month but none of them were K12 specific bills so far um she did sign the uh en enrollment uh changing which enrollment count we use for funding bill she signed that one uh last Friday so that will be going into effect uh for next school year um she also today signed a bill
084creating the office of child advocate there's a number of coordinating efforts that have gone on around um child care services and child protection services so that's a positive development for our um for supporting our youth um at the state level and then thank you Dr Lewis for uh addressing the new title 9 regulations that were released last Friday I would just um share with the board that what that will mean for our work is that there will be probably some significant policy revisions coming in um in those areas uh for the policy committee and staff to consider and then for the board to consider so be um just be aware of that um those new the new title 9 regulations um are effective as of August 1st this year so we will have a tight
085timeline for reviewing and um adopting the new policy that we need to adopt to implement that that's all I have thank you yeah um well really didn't have much I've spent the last two weeks uh actually dealing with adult um aged stuff uh with the um local J triaa um but I wanted to thank Luke for his words and would say keep the faith stay active and keep look into your future and as a person that's lived a little longer than you have uh that's usually good good advice um other than that I really don't have have much all right I appreciate you okay um all right so we're going to move on to approval of consent agenda is there a motion I move the board of education adopt the items listed on the consent
086agenda second this is Carol I second Kimble yes kadu Blackwood yes Costello yes Franklin yes Gordon Ross Yes Jones yes buers yes motion passes 70 okay so the next presentation I'm really looking forward to I'm hearing from uh Dr Johnson and Kylie Luckett will be presenting on the social emotional learning and mental health update so thank you both for coming and the time spent on the report good evening to the board I am Cynthia Johnson executive director of inclusion engagement and belonging and I am Kylie Luckett District mental health coordinator kie and I are excited about bringing you a very quick update um on really our social emotional learning and mental health um tonight we're going to allow it's space there we go the video to talk for us this is capturing Year One a
087[Music] a [Music] tonight I want to begin with thank yous first of all thank you to Julie Bor and Andrew bevon who work so hard to make sure I get back to where I'm supposed to be here that work so hard to um put together our requests when we say you know can you help me with the video or can you help me with anything so I just truly appreciate the work and things um Julie that you and um Andrew put forth next slide there we go thank you that works that works um I also want to say thank you to all of the staff members who have stepped in stepped up to facilitate and implement the character strong um work that is taking place this um school year there are many um many needs
088that our our students may have right now and and we know this we know that there may be social emotional needs there may be mental health needs but the words that I want to use comes from John Luke tonight that says why can't we why can't we take the needs that our children have and do whatever is necessary to help them become and remain successful um thank you I saw it when you walked into Lawrence High School and I still see it today it's brighter I want you to know that it is so bright that it's Illuminating this room but thank you tonight we're going to um hear from Educators that have put forth um the time and the um effort to make character strong um um what it is today it is not perfect
089it is not perfect in every single space but we are working to get better we are working to make it stronger we put it we get out of it what we put into it if we put nothing into it we get nothing out of it in the board dock um you saw the implementation plan and guide it was a document that was developed to really lead us all the way along the journey it was a pickup and a um a beginning after the um pilot and then from there we started and we followed this document you see that on that board dock that there are some areas that were going to continue and build up even larger than what they are right now and we will continue to um do that work there were multiple
090highlights and challenges and opportunities you saw some of the pictures I knew the time was limited so I couldn't show you the whole um video because we would have been here another hour because there are so many pictures and just excitement around um character strong you see the list of highlights couple I want to talk to you about tonight um really another part of um character strong has been our deep kindness book study we finish up this week we have a book study um after school with teachers we have a book study for um ESC staff members we're very excited about being able to continue that into next year we'll have one in the in the um fall semester and we'll have another one in the um spring semester we start our meetings um thank
091you so much Kye Luckett for um bringing in our character strong and you know starting off with a connectivity activities um Kylie brought this into our meetings we do it on our um ESC huddles we do it in our teaching and learning teams and what I love is that other um leaders have now also adopted this as the philosophy so this is the work that we do and we make it part of our culture every single day there are some things that we need to continue and strengthen within our high school level so I don't want you to think that we don't know that so high school teachers and administrators I want you to hear that we know that that um information and there will be additional opportunities this um summer um last year we
092had a full-blown conference we're not having a full-blown conference this year but we are going to provide an opportunity for people to come in and go deeper into the into the materials some teachers are saying you know what I haven't even had a chance to go through um all the parts of it and this is information that's shared at our monthly building Champion meeting I appreciate teachers showing up counselors social workers administrators showing up and sharing about the journey so at this time right now I just want you to hear from um some of our um team members if you'll come forward at this time Lori Greenfield if you will come Lor is representing um Elementary um Laura Leonard is representing middle school and then Mark crud is representing High School good evening Lori Greenfield
093she her pronouns uh second grade teacher Prairie Park Elementary um so I asked my students what do they like about character strong and they said well everything and I said well what's one specific thing um and they really enjoy the songs um as we're lining up at the end of the day they're always singing them whether I play them or they're chanting them along um I asked our fifth grade teachers um what would their students say and they said the team building you know they know each other but this has been been able to give them a chance to work together in a different way uh and with peers that they might not choose to be with and so they've become a a better Community um through this program so thank you uh Laur Leonard
0948th grade at Liberty Memorial Central and one of the things that I have really enjoyed about implementing character strong this year as both both part of the Student Success curriculum team and as a teacher is just like the ease of facilitation um when we've got you know all sorts of stuff on our plates it's so nice to know that hey I've got this I'm going to hit this link and we're just going to go and like the amount of energy that I put into it is what I get out of it and so I have seen the students in my classroom like there was a little bit of a grudging at the beginning but now it's they're typically ready to do the activities um we have What's called the character strong gym that has a
095variety of activities watching eighth graders like willing to be silly is always really enjoyable and they're typically like as we have gone through this and the community in our classroom has improved they're willing to be silly with each other with activities I hadn't thought of before and so just having that resource when it's hey I've got 15 minutes that I need to fill being able to use that um and then like feedback from other colleagues is that like we we the way that it is laid out it really is um smooth for us it's very like there's a routine the students know the routine the teachers know the routine and um seeing students actually implement the skills there's dares and there students that are actually willing to hold doors open for people and walk up
096and introduce themselves to someone they don't know at lunch and part of it is just say hey I challenge you to try this and they're willing to do it and so it's been really fun to watch the social emotional progression of our students with something that is fun and easy for me to teach hi I'm Mark pu the associate principal at Lawrence High and I want to talk a little bit about um doing character strong or any social emotional learning curriculum at high school because they tend to be a pretty jaded and like we've got all the answers and don't bother us with this stuff so I I sent out a Google form to solicit some feedback and just to give you an idea of the interest I sent it out at just before 2:00
097had a meeting got back at 2:45 I already had over 60 responses from students and over 20 responses from staff so people have a lot of information to share as we rolled it out this summer we wanted to keep things as simple as possible so we created a document that had every lesson in order the date that it would be delivered we had carved out time on Tuesdays for either Zell and individual plans of study or character strong so we built time into the schedule where teachers could just click on a link take them to the slide deck click on another link take them to the lesson plan so they could do some pretty simple planning or it's easy enough you can just open it up and click through some of the themes that began
098to emerge in those 80 or so responses among students and staff um in terms of what they liked they liked the activities and the games and they really appreciated getting to know each other what didn't fly over so well were the videos so those are issues for conversation and I think probably some of you have heard about some of those but it's been a good experience for those teachers that really dug in and utilized it they've had great experiences you know I've walked around the building early on and and seen people participating so it it had an impact it was the best curriculum that we found for high school students is it perfect no but nothing ever will be but it it's a great curriculum thank you thank you so much Mr I'm going to
099share briefly about um the tier 2 component of character strong which all of our classrooms are getting that tier one those classroom lessons or tier two they break up the needs into two different needs they have acquisition needs and performance needs so if it is an acquisition need what we found is there's a skill that needs to be taught there's something that is needed to be acquired I think oftentimes we you know think students should know better or how to do something one thing I like to say is we do a lot of talking when it comes to behavior we don't often do a lot of teaching when it comes to behavior and what it looks like what it sounds like and why it's important and that's done through our um group curriculum that has
100gone over really well um especially in the elementary and middle school um they've done multiple rounds of groups and the students have enjoyed them and have asked to come back so for middle schoolers to ask to come back and do a social skills group it's pretty awesome and then they have performance-based needs which are based on the environment and so for example if you have a student who is often leaving class they are wandering the hallways they're walking around one of the solutions is something called class pass so we're going to give the student permission to leave class every single day it's going to be structured it's going to be this is where you're going this is how much time you have and when you don't use that class pass we're going to bank them
101and then work towards some sort of reinforcement based on what that student needs what they enjoy so if I don't use five of them once I have five I get to go spend time with a preferred adult I get extra iPad time whatever is going to be beneficial to that student so this is one of the areas that I'm really looking forward to going into deeper with our school staff um is the tier two component all right I'm not going to go through everything that is on the screen regarding our next steps for um character strong um there are multiple things that um are taking place as it relates to the work that we do in social emotional learning but there is something that I want to share with you that is not not on
102the screen tonight um I spoke with um John Norland I speak with John Norland he is the co-founder of character strong I speak with him quite often pretty much once a week um talking with him about different um things that we're going through especially at the secondary level I spoke with him last Thursday and he said these words he said High School is the hardest level to make work and we have a great opportunity to be Innovative by coming together to talk about what um we can do to make character strong lessons more relevant and engaging we believe in a continuous improvement process because we know that there is no curriculum that is perfect or that it has it all figured out we would love for your students and staff to have a voice in
103this process and we are excited about coming to Lawrence Public Schools so here in the next couple weeks um character strong is coming to Lawrence Public Schools to talk to us about how we strengthen that High School level that is very important so looking at mental health and wellness across all of our buildings as you know or may not know all of our buildings have building mental health teams and one of the things that I'm looking into for the next year and really looking forward to is structuring those um in a more cohesive way and a more systemic way um last semester I was able to attend a training out at Greenbush that was all about building School mental health teams and how you evaluate a mental health Team what structures need to go to
104it how are we reviewing it and so excited to um chrisa Welsh um who was mentioned earlier the social worker from LHS also attended that training and so we are looking at how we can pilot that and walk through that process with um starting with LHS and then hopefully with all of our buildings just to have that systemic approach we continue to have Wap in our buildings um rap is growing I'm very proud of the partnership that we have with rap and the work that I've done Anna sper um who is the director is here tonight and it's been really wonderful to work with and I will continue to say that my hope is that the district can continue to be a partnership to Bert Nash as they've been a partner to us and then
105there are some exciting things across um the state and federal government when it comes to mental health one of those is the suicide prevention intervention re integration and postvention plan I am currently in the process of using this and comparing it to our district District plans to see ksde put this together last year and put out their recommendations to see how our current processes align with that and where we may need to change or alter any of those processes or procedures um and then the Kansas mhit or mental health intervention team Grant um stalled in the legislator unfortunately we are working towards codifying that into law it is going to be moving from KSD to kads and so we are kind of just in a holding pattern right now I heard an update on Thursday
106at the Kansas Schoolboard mental health advisory Council and so there are good things moving forward for mental health everybody one of the things we would just want to bring to your attention is um actually a process we put together this school year in response to um something that happened at the very very beginning of the school year um and nothing that was bad that happened but just talking about conversation and from this we have developed a response um protocol as it relates to incidents for bias and hate and this is a it's it's um based up on work from the learning for justice and you see um the steps that there before that are before you um putting um safety first denouncing um you know Seeking Justice avoiding blame this is a tool for principles
107when something occurs they have a process to follow learning for justice it used to be teaching for tolerance is absolutely phenomenal in the work that they do so we are um it's still in a draft form as we continue to work on things and final lives we'll be able to share this and things with you the last part is speak up at school and this is um something that Dr Lewis brought back to me and I had learned about it at um actually at the amplify conference three years ago it's a process for teachers as well as staff on how to respond to Everyday Prejudice bigotry and stereotypes so we're going to take students um a little bit deeper in this area did I miss one the last not the last but the last part
108that I have here is continuing our Partnerships with Lawrence Police Department um you'll see that Handle With Care thank you so much um officer Browning last year there were a total of 70 notifications we're down we're all the way up to 100 year to date right now um so there is a need once again for additional um mental health um supports so I am excited that the National School counseling conference is in Kansas City this year so Lawrence Public Schools will be sending um representatives to the National School counseling conference and then I'm very excited for um in a moment to speak on the grant that we are working on for school B school-based mental health services so we'll get into that a little later and that concludes our update on social emotional learning and
109mental health go ahead and just look at that no I was actually I was looking at Dr L I meant I was prepared to sing it if I needed to I'm just saying I would I would sit for you singing any day so that would be all right with me um uh thank you all very much I'll open it up for questions yeah so I just have one uh and it it could be for for Mark or for or for John Luke actually either either one so living with with two current high schoolers um for those of you who know my high schoolers would would be surprised that they have thoughts um and and and I appreciate that that you specifically addressed the the the the difficulties at the high school level so my question
110is very broadly do you think that the high school difficulties will get easier as we move more kids through the system in subsequent years as as as kids who have gone through character strong in the elementary school and then in the middle school and then by the time they get to ninth grade and 10th grade they've they they've they've gotten through they've gone through the program for three four or five years do you think it would be they would be be better better at it I guess I don't know what do you think I'm just curious I see the wheels turning Sean Luke take it take a crack at it I can never do I can never do this all right uh so something that we have to understand is that every single high schooler
111has a different experience I in my opinion I feel that we do our students a disj Justice by assuming that everybody has the same kind of experience um you know you have to understand that a lot of high schoolers they're they're in their different points in their life um so sometimes it's not really taken too fondly when we're being pushed all this like Po like overly positivity if you know what I'm saying like you're not helping you're actually you're making me not want to trust you more if you know what I'm saying when we push this overly happy overly positive you know lessons and stuff like that um you know it kind of makes us not trust the program or not trust our teachers as much cuz we're like you don't get it you know
112what I mean and we're always going to have to deal with that um you know a lot of uh students a lot of classmates my age haven't really hit that yet something hasn't happened to them to like really reach that mature to like be like what can I get out of this so I just ask that you continue to bear with students because it it's hard there's no perfect answer and I understand that um I think that introducing character strong and like getting students into the habit of it I feel like it'll come more natural to actually want to take something out of it and I agree with that I think as people get more used to it it won't seem like such a weird thing but there is a challenge when you're creating a
113curriculum that is Nationwide when you think Lawrence High or free state is going to be very different than a high school in Alabama or Washington or you know almost any other place because of those experiences that our students have had so that's the key part of making it work is those teachers engaging with the content and then working and having those lessons but Taylor May to the students that are in their classroom okay thank you John Luke I just want you to know that when um the character strong team comes your name is first on the list I just want you to know that thank you sir I think I would also say when it comes to high school um the way our schedule is can be tough soent currently we have all high school
114students going through the n9th grade curriculum so think about yourself as a n9th grader compared to a 12th grader there's a lot of growth that happens in there so I think as we move through the curriculum and figure out exactly the best way to do it it's only going to get better other uh so one of the things that you had mentioned um was engaging more families in character strong activities so how do you plan to do that first of all our um Family engagement framework that's a whole another presentation that will come at the end of May and um first of all making sure that families understand and know there are there are many families that are engaging right now but we want to increase it we want it to not just take it
115to families but also take it to community so we want to be student strong we want to be staff strong we want to be family strong and we want to be Community strong so to be able to do that we've got to take it to them and then you know whatever type of incentives that we can we we can offer nothing I'm not talking about always didn't always have to be Financial incentives but what type of incentives can be offered to engage the parents um I love being able to see the um newsletters that go out to families um and um how those principles have taken time to put those family dares in there I appreciate um even here at our district level how we have um our staff dares and I may not used
116the right terminology there that um I appreciate Jennifer Georgie putting those in there as well so that it's not just your physical family but it's a community family so um but that will be a part a continuation and part of our um Family engagement um framework that we're working on right now thank you I will also say coming up with ways to to track that we know we're sending out the information for family dares how are we getting that feedback back from families who are participating so we can kind of quantify some of that information because a lot of information's going out and we just need to figure out a structure for getting it to come back in and I'm going to add to that as well um we can quantify it but I'm going
117use the street data and I want to know how we can use that qualitative data from our parents we heard um a a public comment um at the last board meeting talking about the family dares um because we have to look at the numbers we also have to look at the stories associated with it Jan yeah go ahead okay uh Dr Johnson um I I appreciate that you've uh you've named The Challenge with high school um curriculum and and the experience that um staff and students are having with character strong um I'm curious uh do you expect that this work that you're going to get to do with the character strong staff um and Leadership will result in changes that we will see next school year in our in our program yes when I spoke
118with John like I said just on Thursday and John said we're coming and because what I had asked for is like you know can we do something you can facilitate uh he said no we're coming we're coming in person and one of the first reasons why wants to come because he appreciates the partnership with Lawrence Public Schools um it's been it's been a very close walk um that's why I'm pretty much in contact with him every single week but I said all that to say that when he comes he will roll out some of the changes that were are taking place at that High School level there's already changes that have already been in you know that be put in place but they haven't revealed them yet but then what he wants to do most
119importantly this is a former High School teacher teaching leadership class he wants to learn from the student voice he wants to learn from the staff voice I mean I've seen I've seen articles about character strong I've seen videos about character strong I just want us to learn and whatever we need to do to make it better if there's things that we need to do locally let's do those things you know we we made the decision to at all of our high school we're starting with the ninth grade curriculum so that there wouldn't be a over because you you go into a class you you may have two sophomores you may have three Juniors you may have 10 seniors well it's hard to do okay I'm going to do the this the 12th grade curriculum so
120we decided everyone starting with belonging focusing on that Foundation of building relationships because everything else builds up on that so that's part of the work that um he sincerely is coming to do um said because of our our partnership thank you and I guess I would um just ask that we get an update um as to what that looks like going into the next school year and then I have a second question and you can when we do the round table you're welcome to come yeah I I mean I have the date I'm just waiting for them to book the tickets so yeah and and there maybe some things that character strong can change and Implement for for next year because it's pretty much online and web based some of the feedback that we heard
121from my high school students as relates to the videos that may take a little bit more time but I think giving our our students giving him the the feedback of the videos in terms of what they might want to see in a video will be extremely helpful so yeah we'll we'll definitely follow up on that thank you someone said you know do away with the videos you know so maybe maybe they may decide that I I don't know yes my other question is for Kylie um thank you uh for all of your work with the rap program and Bert Nash it is something that I I'm very proud that we do in our district um I have heard some feedback that we've had some trouble um St staing some of the rap positions this year
122um do you uh can you share any information about that or maybe where where we are at with that challenge yeah the district has benefited greatly from Burton Nash um and not compensating Bert Nash um and that is not always sustainable I think the best thing that we can do is find ways to um support Burt Nash through funding um speaking to our grant that's going to be a great way to do it um and increase Staffing also as they continue their programming and being very therapeutic focused um and able to go through um their billing process um will allow them to be more self self- sustaining okay thank you good okay just one second is there anybody else that has a question that hasn't gone yet no go ahead okay go ahead I just
123wanted to because it kind of reminded me um do we think then that part of the issue with the high school could be the fact that we're giving the same curriculum out and have we considered like and I know it's difficult because you've got classes with multi-g grades and stuff like that but trying to find maybe a way to carve out so that you don't have and maybe that would make it more meaningful to them I mean that is a possibility we um we were you know working on our pilot and then also going into the year of first year of implementation we ask the Creator um who you know who has put this together you know what are some different models throughout the throughout the world it's not just United States as throughout the
124world that you can share with us um as it relates to the high school and one of the things that one of their top um recommendations was you know uh building wide at that High School level you know having everyone have that same Focus that's that's one of the ones they've had the most success with and I think that um I'm not saying that we haven't had success with it I mean I've listened to everything that Jean Luke has said which I think is absolutely um phenomenal and I've written down notes from that um but one the thing I think is difficult is for the seniors when they come in this is new to them you know they haven't had it all the other years of their high school and I think that those improvements
125and that's really what gr was asking um as it continues on um I think that would be um significant but we're still looking for ways I mean you know when when they come to be able to sit down at the table with them and to be able to ask that question I can't wait to hear their responses and there still may be some lingering impacts of the previous program that the video J of cie's face expression there um the previous program that we used with the videos that were really um dated dated okay thank you dated so they're coming in with a lens of looking looking critically which which is good looking critically at everything uh I just want to thank you for your work and I really really want to thank you for um
126including the indigenous youth healing health and healing Series in your slide deck because um the last time we sat here we did see where the needle was improving a little bit for our marginalized students so I'm excited to see improvements in the next behavior and data report and um to that end it's been a while since the Lawrence dougles County held an equity report published a new report so I'm hope and Dr Le has said this before I hope it's not a strategy but I would like to think that these implementations are causing Ripple effects in the next report to show improvement in our community as Jean Luke said our community needs help and we all have to work together thank you this is for you Dr Johnson um thank you both so much I
127worked with uh Kylie several times with some of my grandkids I would love to be uh a part of your family engagement thing I have three great levels that could definitely give some input on what our family does to try to engage I haven't received anything cuz my daughter's now get all the emails and stuff so but I would love to be a part of that so that I can figure out what to do with my grandkids on non school days okay so so noted I will make sure if you check your email tonight you will see that there's a message um I there are a couple things I wanted to note um one uh learning for justice I really appreciate that you're utilizing that uh resource and good it is so good there have
128so many good resources I mean it's it's it's almost like okay I can't download everyone okay yes I can you know because there's pieces of them um they do such great work yeah I was really happy to hear you say that so thank you for your leadership in that area um and I wanted to highlight and extend some gratitude to the numbers for um our partnership around the Handle With Care uh initiative thanks to the Lawrence Police Department for that that's such a great model I talk about it with my students when I have the opportunity to um and I appreciate that that gives us the context to interact with our students in a more sensitive way so thank you for making sure that that continues uh the other thing I wanted to highlight that
129I really um that stood out to me just as um there's three of us here with mental health background so I'll be careful but the res um the response protocol that is really exciting to see um the changes there and and um I got to see also just kind of just some Reflections I got to see some of the work they did at the state level around Suicide Prevention intervention um tool kit and it it's really strong so it's nice to hear um Kylie and and Dr Johnson that you're looking at like how do we align that and that you're working with um our mental health teams across the district to to do that because such an important issue for us so um just wanted to really um say thank you to both of you
130for the work and and to our um district for for prioritizing mental health okay um other question questions or considerations thank you all for for coming and staying Along on an evening um I'm I'm grateful that you're all here too so appreciate it lastly I know many of our schools do send out those family dares and their either their um weekly newsletters or other means of of getting that information home I also want to um thank kie for uh as Dr Johnson mentioned we do the character strong activity during our team huddle here for all of our staff here and it has increased I I would like to say it's me but it's not but it has increased our attendance to those um monthly huddles by starting those meetings off and she also um uh
131facilitates a character strong lesson during our superintendent Advisory Group for our parents and staff as well thank you that thank you for mentioning that that reminds me Kylie is going to be doing if if you're still willing Kylie is going to be doing a character strong um lesson for us is should I say lesson what's the right word kylie connection activity yeah um at our board retreat so I'm looking forward to that thank you for volunteering ESS offer I will go and take character strong Wherever Whenever I also offered it to the negotiations team um as a way to start those meetings um I will I will bring this anywhere well I look forward to you com get a a video yes and if I don't like the video provided I will find a supplemental
132one that I like better and I also want to um say just something real quick um like I said we have a very strong partnership ship with character strong I know that um Kylie has been asked to come and um do a presentation um at the National Conference um I also have been asked to come do a presentation at the National Conference but let me say this um as I talked with um John Norland last week and I said we are honored by the invitation but that those are the dates of our returning administrator training and even though we appreciate the invitation the work that we have to do here takes presedent so um he said we will find another date when we can bring you all right you have anything before Mo on okay
133all right um so we'll move on to new business school-based Mental Health Service Grant program um Kylie I believe you're leading this presentation do you have other folks with you I am um so in the board enclosure you'll see this information that I have here um I'm very excited um we also have if you guys want to come up have Annis Boer and Sarah Bishop from um Sarah is from cone flower Consulting and Annis is from Bert Nash and um I am forever grateful to Bert Nash for um hiring Sarah to work with us on this grant we would not be where we are without her I will I will make no qualms about that she has been absolutely amazing to work with and on very short notice um and so a little bit about
134the grant it is the school-based mental health services Grant it's a Federal grant through um the Department of Education and its sole purpose is to increase the amount of mental health providers we have in schools specifically from diverse backgrounds that line and represent our student backgrounds um so with this our plan it started out um I found this kind of talked with Anis about it and was excited and she um another school district had kind of talked with her about it but they kind of set to the side and so then we kind of decided to join together and make this a Douglas County Grant so all of the public schools in Douglas County are kind of going in on it together Lawrence Public Schools is the um like main person who who things who
135the application is going through but it would benefit all public schools in Douglas County which I think is something to be really proud of I feel in my time in Lawrence Public Schools I've always been grateful that mental health has been a priority and I think this shows it even more and not just that it's a priority for Lawrence Public Schools it's a priority for our County um by including Perry L Compton udora and Baldwin it just shows that we can there's enough there's enough to go around and everyone has a need and even if our needs needs are different there's still the needs um I don't know if you guys want to say anything so um you have this information what it's going to do um the goals are to increase recruitment of racially
136and ethnically diverse credential Mental Health Providers um and we'll go down to the project outcomes usd497 will hire four credential general education social workers each year from 2025 to 202 for a total of 16 new social workers in USD 497 in 2029 and burnt Nash will hire four new credential therapists each year from 2025 to 2028 for a total of 16 new therapists working in Douglas County public schools by 2029 and part of this grant we are also looking how we sustain this after the fact um we don't want to hire these people be doing great things have the money go and then say what do we do so that's what we're looking at mhit and other ways to be able to continue um this level of support and also the idea is if we
137can have early intervention if we can really meet our students needs continue with our social emotional learning continue with our rap program hopefully we don't have another Global pandemic and we can really start to make the growth that um we want to make that is all I have for you if there's any questions we can go um I apologize olog if I missed it in the Grant application but um once you have approval from us what's the timeline for submission and then do you have any idea from usdoe what their award timeline is so the grant closes on April 30th our plan is to submit April 25th um and so we're GNA get it in early and I do you know they haven't said they haven't said when they hope the and maybe you could
138speak to this on the funding that it's the 2025 how we kind of discuss yeah yeah so we're looking at um starting the funding at the start of 2025 so January 1st 2025 is our proposed start date not that don't have total control over that but that is what we are proposing um and then that would run all the way through December 31 2029 so that's five years of funding okay thank you so we are not going to get it this summer and trying to hire brand new credential social workers and getting them in it's we're building up to it okay okay questions go ahead that's such a question but thank you I just um tears brought to my eyes because this is a a dream come true for me to see more social workers
139in schools and I have a my bias you were taught to check our biases but I just love love love Anna's Boer she's phenomenal she was my professor and um Kylie lucky I had the honor and privilege to serve with you at the world Domestic Violence Center so I just um I'm excited but um right but um to um to that end I you know we we've all been watching the news about the homeless Camp being removed just this you know very recently and I would this is a great strategy to keep our stud our students from having to look for places to to Camp because I'm a substance abuse counselor and that's why I ran for school board is to look for ways or methods to keep our kids out of those situations of
140UN unow and substance you so thank you and mental health crisises and I'd like to give a big shout out to Burt Nash to the MRT team that came out to has Indi Nations University I was part of the crisis response team that um came and responded to the students when Cole brings plenty was um during the search party the efforts so we were there in the evenings with the Burt Nash as my capacity as a Kansas City Indian Center Co social worker thank you to Beres yeah uh first off I think this is really exciting and I absolutely you know agree that we need more mental health workers and support so I think this is going to be fantastic um I did have a question though it said um me uh improve mental health
141and behavioral statistics for USD 497 students so what data has been collected and how will it be evaluated so those are parts of the program that we're still working on we would look at things like our srss Behavior data um this is the first year we've really systemically started tracking our suicide intervention data um and Reporting it back to schools so I think we would look at that as well um uh as well as just the number of one of the things to implement is a systemic referral system for mental health um teams we don't currently have a way to say the this mental health Team received 50 referrals this year but tracking some of that to then have Baseline data to say well the first year we had a 100 referrals and then we
142dropped down because needs were being met um and supports were being utilized okay thank you um I I think I would encourage you to look and it sounds like you're starting there but to be pretty robust in how you're tracking outcomes um because uh I I won't be on the board in five years so knowing um if the if a future board in any needs justification for retaining the positions that demonstration of um efficacy is going to be a huge component so I think leaning in a little bit deeper than outputs to look and see like where are there um you know where can you really quantify the work that you've done and get credit for for all of it and be able to demonstrate maybe some economic wins for the D District too and
143I know that's probably part of what you're looking at but that would be helpful I think think if you had to look at sustaining those positions past the five years so sounds like you're still working on that piece um but that would be I think pretty critical to Future funding okay so now uh any other no okay um all right so uh we need a motion I believe I move the Board of Education to authorize the administration to develop and submit the school-based mental health Grant in collaboration with Burt Nash and County Schools this is Carol I second kadu Blackwood yes Costello yes Franklin yes Gordon Ross Yes Jones yes buers yes Kimble motion passes 70 thank you very much we're really excited we'll keep you posted good luck like fingers crossed and all of
144that yeah okay Dr leis do you have any announcements just a few closing uh announcements one um first of all thank you all to our team for the work on on the grant uh at our future board meeting we will bring our team steam robotics um to the board meeting I want to give them a huge shout out they allowed me to um Drive their robot last last week and gave me um uh a button uh Lois and Peter um run an amazing program over and these are students uh and huge shout out and thank you to our volunteers that work so tirelessly with our team steam robotics very very impressive I definitely want to arrange a time for our board members to go over there um as well uh upcoming board meeting on May
145the 13th we have Capital outlay uh update as well as effective employees report we'll look at our certified epic data and then on May 28th as Dr Johnson indicated um family community engagement we'll look at our family community engagement framework and as a reminder this is something that our superintendent advisor Council the staff and parents have been working on this year as well family and Community engagement so looking forward to those upcoming reports okay well uh is there a motion to adjourn the meeting motion to adjourn all those in favor I anyone opposed oh did I forget to Second it she Shannon's always like I thought like oh my gosh I always made it through this meeting without Shannon telling me not to do something was the reminder this time yeah I appreciate it okay
146so did we get a second yeah Shannon was second okay all those in favor anyone opposed maybe before I leave the board we'll